Chris Stewart and Lyle Overbay homered against Bartolo Colon, sending the A’s to their only loss in his six starts this year. Hughes (1-2) struck out nine and outpitched his former New York teammate for his first victory since Sept. 20 against Toronto.

‘‘I think it all starts with the fastball for me,’’ Hughes said. ‘‘Being aggressive, throwing strikes with it.’’

Travis Hafner and Brett Gardner each had an RBI single for the Yankees, who bounced back from a 2-0 loss to A.J. Griffin in the series opener and improved to 7-2 on their 10-game homestand.

Oakland has dropped 10 of 15 after opening the season 12-4. The A’s, who had won 6 of 8 against New York, are 13-3 against AL West teams and 4-11 vs. everyone else.

Hughes, hit hard while losing his first two starts of the season, turned in his fourth consecutive strong outing. This one was probably the best of the bunch.

‘‘I feel like I’m kind of clicking right now,’’ said Hughes, who can become a free agent this fall. ‘‘I’m just happy that I’m starting to find my stride and hopefully we can maintain what I’m doing throughout the course of the season.’’

Showing late life and plenty of zip on that heater, Hughes struck out five in the first three innings and induced a double-play grounder in the fourth. He retired Jed Lowrie with two on to end the fifth and fanned Yoenis Cespedes with a 93-mile-per-hour fastball to begin the sixth.

Hughes shut down an Oakland offense that began the day leading the majors in runs (164) and extra-base hits (105). The 26-year-old righty walked two against a team that entered with 142 bases on balls — 25 more than any other team.

‘‘Better fastball than we’ve seen from him. Had a tough time laying off the high fastballs,’’ A’s manager Bob Melvin said. ‘‘Started working for him, and he stuck with it.’’

Hughes threw 82 of 118 pitches for strikes. Shawn Kelley gave up a leadoff single in the ninth and Oakland scored twice with Mariano Rivera on the mound in a non-save situation.

Robinson Cano opened the sixth with his 344th career double, tying Mickey Mantle for eighth place in Yankees history. Cano later scored when Hafner blooped a single well beyond a drawn-in infield. That made it 3-0 and ended the afternoon for Colon (3-1), who gave up six hits over 5⅓ innings — his shortest start this season.

Eduardo Nunez tripled off Chris Resop in the seventh and scored on Gardner’s single.

Stewart, batting ninth, led off the third with a drive to left for his sixth major league home run. Overbay sent Colon’s first pitch of the fifth into the second deck in right for his fifth of the season and third in six games.

‘‘When hitters know the pitchers throw a lot of strikes, they’ll be ready to swing,’’ Colon said through a translator.

One day after Adam Rosales hit a leadoff homer for the A’s, John Jaso nearly duplicated the feat. His drive was caught by a leaping Ichiro Suzuki at the right-field fence.

Josh Reddick made a similar play for Oakland — in almost the same spot — against Gardner in the third.

Reddick, who has struggled in New York, went 0 for 3 with a walk and an RBI. He has just one hit in his last 22 at-bats and is 0 for 33 in 11 career games at the current Yankee Stadium.